German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Monday that her government would reduce the number of refugees entering Germany.
"We want to tangibly reduce the number of refugees arriving. With an approach focused on the German, European and global level, we will succeed in regulating and limiting migration," Merkel said in her hour-long speech at the annual conference of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, according to Guardian.
She also termed the current Europe migrant crisis as a historic test for the bloc.
"This is a historic test for Europe, and I want - hopefully, I can say that we all want - that Europe passes this test. We will do our bit to make sure this happens," she stated, according to DW.
Merkel's remarks came amid growing fiction within ruling CDU party over her refugee policy. Germany accepted more than one million refugees this year.
The 61-year-old German leader, who was recently named Time magazine's person of year for her efforts to deal with Europe migrant crisis, also defended her open-door policy for refugees in an interview with state broadcaster on Sunday.
"At the same time we took on board the concerns of the people, who are worried about the future, and this means we want to reduce, we want to drastically decrease the number of people coming to us," she said, according to Reuters.
